I really don’t intend for this to feel like a ten step program to being ok with where you are. Most of the time I find myself going back and forth between the ‘steps’ like a game of hopscotch. Some days, they happen simultaneously in my life. In general, you don’t have to complete one to be ready to move ahead to another. You might think of How to Be Ok With Where You Are as an abstract painting instead of a paint by number. It may get a bit messy at times, but in the end you still get a vivid and personal piece of art.
My hope is you feel the freedom to jump to a section that seems to be a sticking point for you. You have that option. This is absolutely true for all the chapters with one exception. Chapter 1 and 2 always go together, like Ebony and Ivory, Anne Shirley and Dianna Barry, or Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. If you are willing to read and walk through chapter 1 you need to read and walk through chapter 2. You can’t separate the two.
You may pause, take a breath and brace yourself for chapter 2. This is totally fine with me. Please, by all means grab a cup cup of coffee or some chocolate because you just admitted you are not ok with where you are. This is huge. This is life changing. Now that I think of it, you should probably take a moment to prepare yourself, because chapter 2 may be the hardest one. I know it is for me.
So by all means, when you are ready, read on.
{From Chapter 2: Give It To God}
Do you remember this poem? My dentist had it on a poster hanging from the ceiling with push pins back in the 1980’s. It had a girl on a beach tossing a dove into the air and read:
If you love something set it free.
If it comes back to you it was yours.
If it doesn’t it was never meant to be. – Author Unknown
Lately, I feel like I am living in this tired poem and giving my “it” to God is a bit like tossing that dove into the air. I know there are shades of truth here. I have to be willing to let go of what I was hoping like crazy was God’s best for me. There is one one major difference, however. When I give my “it” to God I am not setting it free to fly and let the universe decide to bring it back or not. Instead, I am surrendering my plans to a personal God who loves me and knows what is best for my heart.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
The trouble comes when I have something I really want to fit in God’s plan for my life and think I know better. I tend to hold on like a toddler who doesn’t want to share with her playmate. “Mine!” is a word I am all to familiar with in a house full of girls. It is next to impossible to unwrap my three year old’s hands from a toy she thinks she deserves. Parenting 101 teaches you to not force the child’s hand, but offer her something better.
Often, God will orchestrate my life in such a way I have no choice but to let go of my “it” because it is not part of His good plan for my life. His hand extends to me and He whispers, “Dear one, if you keep holding on to that, you can’t hold on to my hand. There simply isn’t room for you to hold both.” Faith comes when I can’t see what else He is holding in His other hand or where His plan will lead. It feels like giving it to God is letting it go. When really, it is about having a hand to grab His and readying my heart to receive what He wants to give me instead. I have to trust His plan is infinitely better. At the end of the day, it is really about surrender.”
***
I’m not really crazy about that “s” word either. But there it sits just the same. The rest of chapter 2 unpacks it and hopefully will lead us both to better things. What am I saying? Of course it does! It leads us to chapter 3 which I will share part of with you soon.
xo,
Stacey
For more information on “Being OK with Where You Are” go here.
“I have to be willing to let go of what I was hoping like crazy was God’s best for me.”…oh girl. Have I mentioned to you lately that I am walking this path right now? You might have an incredibly long & rambly email coming your way soon. His ways are good, His plans are perfect, His timing is better than my agenda….add that mantra to my reminder to myself EVERY morning to just “lay the thing down,” and I’m taking baby steps in the “surrender” department. Can’t wait to read the rest of chapter 2 (and chapter 1, actually, to figure out how we ended up on the bathroom floor!)
I’ll be waiting for the email, girl! Praying over you and those baby steps.
“Dear one, if you keep holding on to that, you can’t hold on to my hand. There simply isn’t room for you to hold both.”
Oh my yes. Oh my, yes. This is so good Stacey friend.
This was beautiful Stacey! God is working through these posts! I keep feeling like something big is around the corner for me – and I’m not sure if it’s a good big or a bad (ie trial) big. Maybe it’s nothing and just the devil trying to scare me, but some days I really feel like God is preparing me – I’m just not sure what for. Daily I am praying that he will show me, prepare me, and help me to be surrendered to and face whatever is ahead in his strength. I thought this part was very apropos:
“Faith comes when I can’t see what else He is holding in His other hand or where His plan will lead. It feels like giving it to God is letting it go. When really, it is about having a hand to grab His and readying my heart to receive what He wants to give me instead.”
I cannot count the times in my life I tried to hold onto something for dear life because I thought I knew better, and God practically had to pry my fingers off of it. I love how you say when we give our “it” to God we are surrendering it to a loving God who wants the best for us (paraphrased because I have the memory of a gnat). That makes it a little easier to let go. I am all about control – surrender is a dirty word to me – yet I have to drop what’s in my hand in order to hold onto His hand. And yes, faith is not being able to see what’s in His hand, but grabbing onto it anyway.
I really needed this. All of it. His timing is perfect, after all.
Haven’t read to the bottom yet but I’m commenting before I forget … “Ann Shirley” is “Anne spelled with an ‘E'”!!!!! Ahh. Had to get that off my chest. Anne and I have always shared a misspelling of our names, so I notice it 🙂
Okay, off t read your post now!
Ahh! I thought I put that there! Ok, it is all fixed now!
Thanks for using your editing skills once more!
Okay, i’m caught up on chapters 1-2.
I’m so excited for your book! I need this. The picture of God offering something better –His hand– so that we can release what we are holding on to is so powerful.
I really enjoy this. Because where I am, is not fix, it’s moving, changing ever in motion.
Looking at the past can be good for learning about where we are going, but we shouldn’t be dewling on it for too long.
Looking at the future can help us focus our energy and mind and prayers toward a goal, and goals are important. But if it consumes us, prevents us or living here and now, it;s not worth it.
To be ok where we are, if the balance between knowing where we have been, and where we are going and willing to take it one step at the time.